EABER/SABER Newsletter June 2015

In the past three and a half decades, China has grown rapidly. Between 1978 and 2015, the real gross domestic product (GDP) of the country increased from US$0.21 trillion to US$10.86 trillion, an annual growth rate of 11.3%. As a consequence, China has overtaken Japan to become the second largest economy in the world since 2010. It is widely believed that the rapid economic growth in China is heavily related to its trade with the rest of the world. On one hand, China increased the aggregate demand for domestic production through exporting labour intensive products so as to facilitate the urbanisation and industrialisation process; on the other hand, China imported a large amount of primary commodities such as petroleum, iron ores and agricultural products, and services to feed the need of domestically expanding production.